Need Merchants and Affiliates Opinion on Strenghts and Minuses of CJ and Linkshare!!!!

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Hello Everyone it has come down to this I need a huge tally on this one. I need to know everyones opinions on the strenghts and minuses of CJ or Linkshare and why we should go with either. This will be the desicion maker for the program I go with next week. So please give me all you have.

Your don't need DHTML product links so it's a no brainer. Go with CJ and spend the cash you save on some nice creatives and meaningful pre-sell text links. The sooner you get checks going out to your new affiliates the sooner they will showcase you. No real affiliate takes a flyer on a new merchant til they have a check in their hands. Those active on CJ will see some paid transactions their first month on your stats.

Webmaster Mike

"Anyone can make a dollar, it is when you make sense that it starts to add up."...does your eBiz plan make sense?

Hi John! I will give my opinions..I have never worked with CJ..our program has always been with Linkshare.
We are happy with LS so far. We launched our program in January 2001 and saw great increases this year.
I like LS backend merchant tools..pretty user friendly for the most part.I am able to send out newsletters or email blast my affiliates with latest news as needed. I think they charge if you do over an alloted amount..but we don't use it that often so I have no idea of teh charges.
I know LS is taking a "stronger" stance against parasites though they still work with them..they are taking a leadership position in that regard anyway.
As far as costs..have no way to compare and I am sure both CJ and LS must offer different deals to different merchants..so who knows..
As far as affiliate payments..we pay our own affiliates for now so I have no idea how smooth their processing is. Just makes us nervous handing over a wad of cash for them to pay for us..BUT if and when they switch to consolidated payments, we will participate. For now..my checks go out faster than theirs.

I am sure the affiliates will weigh in on this one and let you know who they prefer to work through.

I fyou want more information privately, feel free to PM me and we can talk!

As an ex-employee at LinkShare, perhaps I can shed a little light here.

You appear to offer dating services, and frankly, that has not been a set of merchants that LS has actively pursued. That said, if you want to go with the provider with the most affiliates, the most active affiliates, and the one who has been profitable for most of the past two years - LS it is.

In order to be a LinkShare merchant, your company must pass a rather rigorous credit history test; as they are very strict in this area.

Further, you will have the opportunity to be one of a few merchants in this arena on the LS network, as opposed to one of the many at CJ.

I truly believe that when LS gets consolidated payment and direct-deposit going in their network, the others are going to be hard-pressed to even compete - much less prosper.

Obstinatedon

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> I truly believe that when LS gets consolidated payment and direct-deposit going in their network, the others are going to be hard-pressed to even compete - much less prosper. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's just two ingredients, Don, but it'll take more than that.

Add an escrow account to lessen the deadbeat merchant risk to affiliates to those things you mentioned.

Then "that network" just may have the major components.

Oh, and speed up the pay cycle on the LS end. I've seen a lot of posts in the LS forum about merchants who are marked "paid", yet affs haven't gotten their checks out of the LS system yet! Somehow I have resisted the temptation to write "Bwaa haa haa, I told ya so!" to them all, so far...

Of course, less "big names" and more merchants that everybody doesn't already know about (in other words, merchants with some "upside" left) would be good, too.

And that datafeed of LS's doesn't have enough merchants in it.

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John, I'd say to go with CJ! From the affiliate perspective:

Affiliates are more likely to showcase a merchant when there is a higher chance of getting paid. At Sna--um, erm, I mean LinkShare, it could be months before an affiliate can know for sure whether a place is going to pay up--and when.

Also the consolidated payments at CJ. Affiliates who are there, know that if they send you some leads, those commissions will be coming in the next deposit--not rotting at LS waiting for some "minimum" to be hit.

Speaking of deposit, the direct deposits are at CJ.

LS has a more expensive set up fee. Yet they don't seem to provide a substantially greater amount of service to merchants.

LS does have more reporting options on the affiliate side. What sold, from where, there's reporting on a dizzying array of inconsequential minutae!

But all the reporting in the world does not cut checks or pay bills. Checks cut on the 20th, for sales made the month prior?!?? Only ONE month for extensions?! HAA HAAAA HAAA HEE HEE!!! Not at LS!!

At CJ they handle payments, and that's good. But at LS, it's better if YOU handle the payments, since you'll probably pay faster.

CJ's search for finding merchants is better. You can type in things you KNOW are at LS, and get 0 results...

Some like LS's thingy for making custom links. Personally I think it's a PITA! But maybe that's a matter of individual preference.

If an affiliate gets CJ's datafeed, there's actually some merchants in it--not that puny little list that LS has. You don't need products to be in that--write a pitch and put it in as a "product link" and feed-driven sites will be able to run your links right along with their others.

One thing LS has is a better spin department when it comes to p*rasiteware. But no amount of sugar will cover it when H has frozen before the payment shows up--at least not for a high performing affiliate!

Affiliates at LS perform better??? I don't think so! But I don't have the actual figures either. It just sounds like hokum to me, especially since all the top performers here that I know of, except for BluesX, have said that they like CJ or indies best.

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